Computer Science Students Attend 2011 Tech Entrepreneur Conference
04/11/2011
SUNY New Paltz, School of Science and Engineering and SUNY Ulster jointly sponsored a conference for senior students and recent graduates. The conference title was Technology Innovation: Entrepreneurship for the Hudson Valley. Students came from New Paltz, Ulster Country Community College, the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering at the University at Albany and other nearby colleges and listened to talks, panel discussions and workshops on how marrying great technical ideas with an entrepreneurial spirit that can lead to the creation and development of successful businesses.
Students were encouraged to think about turning their technology ideas into business opportunities from an elite group of speakers including Frank Falatyn of FalaTech in Kingston, NY and Dr Pradeep Haldar, VP of Clean Energy Programs at Albany Nanotech. Regardless of whether students were ready to start a business right now or not, they were encouraged to think like entrepreneurs from the get-go – develop their skills of persuasion, build a network (by volunteering, for example), practice taking risks, etc.
Dr Shekhar Pradhan of Mixpool gave a great talk on the rich networking scene in Silicon Alley (New york City). Sean Morgan, a graduate in Computer Science from New Paltz and CEO of Critical Media (CM controls the world's largest video ecosystem, ingesting over 32 hours of TV every 60 seconds and making all of this TV searchable by every spoken word within moments of airtime) spoke in an animated fashion about personal war stories of being an entrepreneur.
Taino Ryan
Here is Taino Ryan, a graduate student, showing conference participants an iPad user interface for the 1970's Moog Synthesizer at the conference poster session.
Mike Maset
Mike Maset, a graduating senior, talks about a company he formed in the past year called Ally Medical that provides value-added services to medical offices including an on-line appointment calendar and a computer interface for handling texted appointment requests.
Sean Morgan
Two New Paltz students, Caleb Wright and Justin Kaczmar, converse with Dr Shekhar Pradhan and Sean Morgan.
